Post by Bryan StybleOh dear!
Berry not only put my hometown of St. Louis forever on the rock & roll map, but was arguably the second most influential figure in the history of rock, establishing the paradigm of the rock singer/songwriter, penning loads of rocker standards, and originating tons of now-classic lead riffs, monumental musical achievements each which even Presley could never claim. (Lennon said as much that day Berry guested during the week he and Yoko co-hosted "The Mike Douglas Show".)
Or as Clapton put it in the Berry tribute film "Hail! Hail! Rock & Roll!", by consensus one of the finest rock movies ever, [paraphrasing], "If you're going to set out to play rock-and-roll guitar, you're going inevitably to end up playing like Chuck Berry, because he pretty much laid down the rules for how to play rock on guitar."
Kenn Thomas, the widely-respected conspiracy journalist who I've been lucky enough to be pals with for forty years now, in St. Louis Music magazine once brilliantly termed Berry "Earth's Rock & Roll Ambassador to Outer Space", after an early recording of "Johnny B. Goode" was included by Carl Sagan's team on the four Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft now departing our solar system.
I was fortunate enough to chat with Berry twice, first on July 4, 1974 poolside at his infamous Berry Park estate out in Wentzville and then again a couple years later backstage at Six Flags, and have always cherished both encounters. And friends understand how gratifying it was then for me when, a few years ago, in one of the greatest rock summits ever, Berry finally hooked up somewhere with The Most Influential Figure of Rock History, and Berry said to His Inscrutableness, according to Rolling Stone (if memory accurately serves), "I hope you survive to 120. And I want to live forever!"
So sad that only one of those ambitions can now ever be realized.
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
This has always been my favorite Chuck Berry song:
Lyrics:
"You Never Can Tell"
It was a teenage wedding,
and the old folks wished them well
You could see that Pierre
did truly love the mademoiselle
And now the young monsieur
and madame have rung the chapel bell,
"C'est la vie", say the old folks,
it goes to show you never can tell
They furnished off an apartment
with a two room Roebuck sale
The coolerator was crammed
with TV dinners and ginger ale,
But when Pierre found work,
the little money comin' worked out well
"C'est la vie", say the old folks,
it goes to show you never can tell
They had a hi-fi phono, boy, did they let it blast
Seven hundred little records,
all rock, rhythm and jazz
But when the sun went down,
the rapid tempo of the music fell
"C'est la vie", say the old folks,
it goes to show you never can tell
They bought a souped-up jitney,
'twas a cherry red '53,
They drove it down New Orleans
to celebrate their anniversary
It was there that Pierre was married
to the lovely mademoiselle
"C'est la vie", say the old folks,
it goes to show you never can tell